Baghdad - Iraqi TV reporter Montazer al-Zaidi, who famously threw his shoes at US President George W Bush, will face the Iraqi Central Criminal Court on February
19, his brother told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa on Monday.

Maitham al-Zaidi told dpa that his brother is in a good health and that he is ready for the trial.

"All the family will attend the trial to support Montazer. We hope it will be a fair trial."

Maitham said that the trial, which was originally due in December 31, will be open for the press.

Beijing  - A fire has broken out at a hotel tower under construction within the new headquarters complex of Chinese State Television (CCTV) in Beijing, according to witnesses late Monday.

Flames from the 159-metre tall tower, set to house the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and a cultural centre, could be seen from far afield, but it was unclear initially if there were any victims.

The building which caught blaze stands 200 metres from the iconic "twisted arch" headquarters of CCTV, recently completed and designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and German architect Ole Scheeren.

Sydney  - The enormity of south-east Australia's forest fires was revealed Sunday, with as many as 40 people believed dead, hundreds of houses destroyed and swathes of countryside turned to ash.

The official death toll from Saturday's inferno stands at 25, but police expect the number to rise above 40 as daylight allows them to pick through the wreckage of homes, sheds and vehicles.

More than 150,000 hectares has burned in the hinterland north of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state.

Wellington  - A man attacked while swimming off a New Zealand beach was injured by a stingray, not a shark, as police and paramedics first thought, according to news reports on Sunday.

Police cleared beaches on the South Island's Tasman Bay on Saturday, after Mike French, 46, a builder, staggered from waist-deep water at Kina Beach with two deep, tearing lacerations in his back.

He did not see what attacked him but paramedics told police the wounds looked like a shark bite and bathers were told to keep out of the water.

Munich  - Eleven persons were temporarily detained by police Saturday during largely peaceful protests by several thousand persons demonstrating against the Munich security conference, police officials reported.

Police spokesman Peter Reichl said the 11 were taken into custody for, among other reasons, resisting police, violating the anti-mask ban, and insulting police officers.

Four persons, one of them a policewoman, were slightly injured in a skirmish in which pepper spray was used, but that otherwise the protests had been peaceful.

Antananarivo  - Madagascan troops opened fire Saturday on an anti-government demonstration in the capital, killing 40 protestors and injuring 300 in a bloodbath escalation of political tensions on the tropical island, local media reports said.

Among the dead were reportedly two TV journalists, including a foreign correspondent - but there was no immediate official confirmation of the death toll.